My past 6 months and rowing
Bear with me this is going to be a long one or just go to the tldr lol.
So I discovered rowing my freshman year of college (I was a football player and competitive weightlifter all through high school) and instantly fell in love with the sport. I'm part of a small and relatively new team (it's been around for only 8-9 years I believe) and met some people that became my best friends. These past 4 years have had their ups and downs but I believe that's part of any team and any sport, things had been going relatively well until about a year ago when I had, what I believed because of X-rays, were 2 slipped discs and sciatica. I had to stop rowing halfway through last spring season because I was in intense pain and even had to medically withdraw from classes.
Fast forward to fall semester. The pain was getting worse and more frequent and I assumed I'd be done with rowing. My team offered me a position as an assistant coach so that I would be able to stay and enjoy my last year with the people I love. Despite this my pain continued to get worse.
5 1/2 months ago I was sleeping 2 hours a night, about 30 minutes at a time then I had to get up and stretch for roughly an hour and then take too much Aleve and ice my back until the pain abated enough for me to sleep only to soon wake up again. This went on for about 2 weeks as the pain in my low left back started creeping down the outside of my left leg and then started radiating to the front of my left hip. One morning I had enough, I wasn't sleeping, I was working too much, and I couldn't take the pain. I called my mom and in tears at 5am I asked her what to do. She told me I needed to go to the ER and get a MRI to find out what was going on.
In the ER I had my MRI and was told they needed to wait for the neurosurgeon to finish in surgery to explain what was going on (which freaked me out more than anything) but in the meantime I was given morphine and had the best sleep in months. When I woke up it was about 6 hours later and my girlfriend (who is also a coach for our rowing team) was there watching movies on my laptop waiting for me to wake up. She came right after practice and skipped class to be there with me (I also have to admit the pain and lack of sleep made me a complete dick and I don't know why she put up with me for so long but I am incredibly grateful that she did).
Not long after I woke up from that beautiful sleep, the neurosurgeon came in and told me the results of my MRI. I had a tumor in my spinal column which was causing the discs to bulge while it crushed my nerves. He said I was going to need emergency surgery and that there were risks but that everything would be better afterwards.
I was in the hospital for almost a week. I had the surgery where they discovered the tumor spanned 4 vertebrae but they were able to remove 99.9% of it (while in the hospital/post surgery I lost 16 pounds). I then went home with my parents and stayed on bed rest for about 2 1/2 weeks as I could barely move on my own. My friends back home (especially Miranda and Nick) helped me stay sane and helped me maneuver my house when needed. I returned to school after being out for roughly a month and slowly caught up with classes and went back to coaching (at this point I couldn't stand for longer than 2-3 hours, if I did I'd be wiped out for the rest of the day).
Fast forward to the end of January. The team is doing well and we are training for spring season, my coach asks me if I could give rowing a shot again (at my own pace of course), so I started training very lightly to try and get my body ready for the stresses that would be put on it. After about three weeks the team did a 2k test (the first one since my surgery for me) and I had to give it a shot if I wanted to work my way back into the boat because even if my times weren't the best I could win a seat with tech.
I had the slowest 2k I have ever pulled, 1:54.5. I was a little put out but I've kept training, a week later we had our first invitational regatta where I was told I made the V8 (though I'd be on the opposite end of the boat I used to be haha) and would stroke our V4-B. My first race since last spring and my first since my surgery, I was a little nervous but I knew my team would do well and I would try my best. We ended up placing 2nd in our V8!
I just couldn't believe how well we had done and, personally, how far I've come. Since then I did a 4x2k this past Saturday and PR'd (post surgery season) with 1:51.4. Today we did a similar workout and I PR'd again with 1:50.3. I may still be pulling the slowest I ever have and I may be the weakest I’ve been but I have faith I can work it back down. I believe in myself more and I trust my team to push me hard everyday.
The past year was probably the worst of my life but I got through it and I'm working my times down as I get back in shape, I'll always work hard for my teammates that believed in me every step of the way. (and the scar is getting smaller so that’s a plus too!)
tl;dr: Back injury made me go from rower to assistant coach, 6 months ago I was in the worst pain of my life, 5 months ago I found out I had a tumor in spinal column spanning 4 vertebra and had major back surgery to remove it, went back to training as a rower with the new year, 2 weeks ago I had my first race post surgery and our boat showed up. You can do anything if you believe and have the support of your team.
romaincrisis
snowghoul
2087
